Marxism versus anarchism, Carlene Wilson, Permanent Revolution, No.3 (no date) [Permanent Revolution].
Marx versus Bakunin: Part Five, Alan Woods, In Defence of Marxism, March 9, 2010 | Anarchism [International Marxist Tendency].
Marxism and anarchism, Paul Blackledge, International Socialism Journal, No.125, Winter 2010 [International Socialist Tendency (SWP)].
The proletarian party, democracy, and planning under workers’ rule, Eric Gordon, September 16, 2009 | Articles on anarchism [Communist Voice, “for the rebirth of communism by fighting for anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism”].
The Historical Failure of Anarchism, Chris Day, 1996/2009 [kasamaproject.org].
When anarchism was put to the test, Josh Lees, October 14, 2008 | Is there anything radical about anarchism?, Mick Armstrong, June 11, 2007 [Socialist Alternative].
The contradictions of Noam Chomsky, Steven Strauss, Freedom Socialist, Vol.29, No.5, October 2008 [Freedom Socialist Party].
Anarchism or Marxism?, Vincent Kolo, chinaworker.info, August 26, 2007 [Committee for a Workers’ International/Socialist Party].
See also : Marx and Engels on Anarchism | Marxism, Anarchism, & the Genealogy of “Socialism From Below”, Tom Keefer, Upping the Anti, No.2, 2002.
Marxism vs. Anarchism, 2001, 56 pages, $2 [International Communist League
(Fourth Internationalist)/Spartacist League of Australia].
Hi @ndy and others.
I expect most of these to be pretty crap. I think the Chris Day article is worth a read, it was written at the very start of his turn to Maoism wasn’t it? So I don’t know how ‘Leninist’ it actually is.
cheers
Dave
I used to read L&R back in the day, and Day’s essay was produced at about the time L&R was undergoing its final dissolution, and partly for the reasons he outlines in his essay by way of explaining his abandonment of anarchism, viz, the inability of anarchism, especially ‘classical anarchism’, to advance much beyond its then-current paradigm/theoretical formulation… or at least what he and (most, if not all) of L&R understood it to be. Obviously, I didn’t agree with his analysis, and still don’t, but I dunno if it’s worthwhile going over the reasons for my disagreement… that said, I see little point in doing anything much, so who knows, maybe I will.
As for the rest, I think they’re fairly standard, and probably don’t depart very much from the line of critique developed first by Marx and Engels (First International), then Lenin (Russia/Third International) and Trotsky (Spain). I’ve tried to look for other sustained polemics online, but haven’t found any worth referencing above, but if anybody knows of any, feel free to link.
See also:
Maoism and Anarchism: Mao Zedong’s Response to the Anarchist Critique of Marxism
John A. Rapp
Anarchist Studies
Vol.9, No.1 (2001)
In this paper I use anarchism as a prism to analyse Mao’s political thought and ruling practice. First, I construct the best case possible for the populist, anti-statist Mao. Next, I present a contrary case, which shows the roots of Mao’s autocratic practice in the statist, authoritarian aspects of his ideology, leading to his failure to answer the anarchist critique of Marxism.
I remember that Day started a group called The Fire by Night Organising Committee which seemed interesting before they melted in FRSO. I am right to think that this tendency moved to the Maoist ‘mass line’ through the Zapatista notion of ‘walking we ask questions?’
cheers
Dave
Pretty much, yeah. That is, FBN (not FNB) and the FRSO (not FRSO). (L&R also produced Bring the Ruckus, which is still kicking.) Another major point of disagreement was to do with race — I think the Zaps may have been utilised in a way that underpinned arguments regarding the necessity of abandoning more strictly ideological approaches to radical social change. Oh, and Three Way Fight also has some disco on this and related subjects — by which I mean, primarily, the approach of white radicals to Qs. of race in the US/North American context.
See also:
Splitting with Anarchism (as Opposed to Anything Else)
June 11, 2008
We Are Family
March 13, 2009
ALSO!
Sketchy Thoughts: Drawing Lessons from Our Past – Lenin and Leninism
threewayfight
September 25, 2009
What can we draw from the past? And how do we draw things from the past? These questions, when you get down to it, are key to our project…
More on Zeskind… and spotting!
August 15, 2009
Has stuff on Sojourner Truth et al. Zeskind is the US correspondent for Searchlight btw.
I like Bring the Ruckus they remind me of cooler versions of US Maoism like The Sojourner Truth Collective.
Whoops I mean organisation…
Yeah. / Organization. d00d’s writing a book and stuff.
Ha! I think this must be what Marxists call dialectics or something.
Word on the street is that the ISJ (international socialist journal) has a big ol’ article on anarchism.
Cheers.
I don’t really having anything to contribute, other than the picture in the post is fantastic. Source?
Hmmm… But I can add that Spartacist #61 (Spring 2009) has an article called ‘Trotskyism vs Popular Frontism in the Spanish Civil War’. The Spart who sold me the journal knew me as an anarchist and highly recommended it for that reason, so it might be of interest.
TOOT TOOT!
WOW the SAlt article’s criticism of lifestylists was good, but the stuff about Emma Goldman was SO RETARDED.
Yeah. I already replied to that one.
Anarchy: Against Capital, Against the State
June 23, 2007
J. V. Stalin wrote a series of articles against the Anarchists under the general title of Anarchism or Socialism? The first four instalments appeared in Akhali Tskhovreba in June and July 1906. The rest were not published as the newspaper was suppressed by the authorities. In December 1906 and on January 1, 1907, the articles that were published in Akhali Tskhovreba were reprinted in Akhali Droyeba, in a slightly revised form.
http://www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/AS07.html
Indeed. The edition I have was published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; the translation based on the text provided in Uncle Joe’s Collected Works, Vol.1 (Moscow, 1946). Mostly, Uncle Joe is responding to some Georgian anarchist called Cherkezishvili and his scribblings in a paper called Nobati.
LOL.
Hi all. Chris Day’s article is worth reading because it is a sincere attempt to think through important questions as opposed to most Trot stuff on anarchism which is about recruiting and neat ideological lines. Though the piece in Melbourne Black on Marxism was just as bad as as anything I have read by SAlt on Anarchism. Pot calling Kettle.
rebel love
Dave
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I was recently reading copies of the Revolutionary Socialist League’s ‘The Torch’ from 1988 and Chris Day has basically the same critique then, long before Love & Rage dissolves. I used to think he “abandoned” anarchism, but now I think he was always an entryist.
Also of note are a MIM #8 theoretical journal on anarchism from 1995 (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/mt8.html); there is a (US) RCP one; and also an International Bolshevik Tendency pamphlet on platformism (scroll through http://www.bolshevik.org).
The Anarchist Ideal and Communist Revolution [incomplete] (MIM Theory, No.8) and International Bolshevik Tendency pamphlet on platformism.
Also:
Anarchist Organization and Vanguardism: In Defense of Leninism, 1917, No.29 (January 2007); James P. Cannon on Anarchism (PDF), No.20 (1998); From Sacco and Vanzetti to Mumia Abu-Jamal, No.25 (2003), Neutrality in the Face of Imperialism, No.26 (2004).
Contemporary anarchism
Eric Kerl
International Socialist Review
No.72 (July–August 2010)
Review: International Socialist Review on “Contemporary Anarchism”
Tom Wetzel
ideas & action
July 3, 2010
Karl Marx & the State
David Adam (Marxist-Humanist Initiative)
September 6, 2010